Promoting its mobile-specific video content for Discovery Channel's 20th anniversary Shark Week (July 29-Aug. 4), MobiTV teamed up with mobile entertainment provider SendMe on a low-bid auction
game as SendMe's new game site SoLow.com launched on Thursday.
The Shark Week promotion
represents SoLow's only sponsored game at launch, but a spokesperson said the site aims to have 80% of the auctions sponsored, and the other 20% tagged to "cool stuff." (For example, titles of other
current auctions include "Nintendo Wii," "Tag Heuer Watch," and "Las Vegas Vacation.")
To celebrate its launch, SoLow is also entering all game players through October 16 into a $2 million
sweepstakes, which it says is the largest mobile prize to date.
Low-bid auctions, where users compete to make the lowest unique bid, are a hot trend in the text-messaging space. After texting in
a bid, a feedback message is received, such as telling the user that the bid is too high. Games can also be played from users' computers.
Other key players in the space include limbo.com, which
has run several promotions with NBC/Universal's Bravo.
The "Ultimate Shark Week Vacation" game will award its grand-prize winner with a trip for two to Longboat Key, FL, including a visit to a
natural shark habitat. MobiTV's Shark Week offerings, from Discovery Mobile, include made-for-mobile shows as well as clips from the cable channel's programming.
SendMe, Inc., based in San
Francisco, was founded a year ago, with venture capital financing from Spark Capital and True Ventures.